


Where the Wild Things Lurk

by BlackFriar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Creepy, Friendship, Horror, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 19:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13841235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackFriar/pseuds/BlackFriar
Summary: While responding to a distress beacon from another ship, Lance and Keith become prey for something evil hunting in the dark.





	Where the Wild Things Lurk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Haleykim84 (tristen84)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tristen84/gifts).



> Written for the ever-awesome HaleyKim's birthday. :)
> 
> I am not a fan of the Paladin reshuffle on the show, so this will be the only time that I write Lance and Keith as the Red and Black Paladins. I have spent every season since the reshuffle praying for the original line up back.

“Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” Patrick Lencioni.

oOo

_What the quiznak was that?_

The unearthly scream that echoed through the bowels of the supposedly abandoned ship made Lance’s hair stand on end. And okay, so they were out in space where their very location made the scream unearthly, but the point still stood – he’d never heard a scream like that before.

Freezing where he’d been searching for a way back to the control room, Lance peered down the gloomy hall with his bayard trained in front of him, ignoring the way it shook ever so slightly in his hands. The shriek echoed again, louder this time, bouncing off the walls in a way that sounded like the ship itself was screaming…and for all Lance knew, maybe it was.

Heart pounding, he listened as a third scream rattled the walls, making the dim, quavering lights flicker even more and sending Lance’s Spidey senses into overload. Okay, first the comms had fizzled out the instant they boarded, and now this? Lance knew this mission was a bad idea! He’d even gone on the record and said it was a bad idea! But had anybody listened? Noooooooo! It was all ‘someone sent a distress signal, Lance’ and ‘BLIP-tech is showing signs of life, Lance’, followed by lots of blah-blah-blah about being paladins of Voltron. 

(For the record, Lance was all for saving people; it was the _this-mission-has-the-potential-for-disaster_ written all over it that he was less thrilled about).

So now he was lost on this creepy ship that creaked and groaned – and apparently screamed – with no communications and absolutely zero idea of where Keith was. Because of course the mullet had wanted to split up as soon as they’d boarded, even though there was only two of them. He’d broken the cardinal rule of creepy situations: don’t split up. Because in every horror movie ever, bad things happened when people split up! Hadn’t Keith ever watched a horror movie?!

Knowing Keith, probably not.

Lance sighed. Next time they got a distress signal from a ship in the middle-of-ass-nowhere, he was so making Coran send a training bot in to check it out first. He wasn’t even sure if they could use the training bots for that, but he would find a way of making it happen.

The screams had stopped now, leaving behind the same eerie quiet as before, and Lance wasn’t sure which was worse: the death screams or the _something-is-waiting-to kill-you_ silence.

Okay, focus. He needed to get back to the rendezvous point.

Lance resumed checking for a way back to the control room. The ship was huge, and he’d gotten turned around while searching the upper deck for survivors. Keith was checking the lower deck and it wasn’t like Lance could just contact him to say, ‘oh hey, I got lost, can you come get me?’ Heck, even if the comms _were_ working, Lance probably wouldn’t do that. If Keith could get back to the rendezvous point by himself, then Lance could totally do it too. Old habits die hard after all, and despite being friends with Keith, Lance still couldn’t help competing with him. The red paladin just brought out his competitive streak.

Black! Keith was the black paladin now. Lance had to keep reminding himself of that.

Biting his lip, Lance crept down the hall. It was a weird situation. Shiro was back, so things should have gone back to the way they were, but for some reason that no one could fathom, the Black Lion had refused her former paladin. It didn’t matter that Shiro was the epitome of a leader: strong, commanding, fair and clear-headed. It didn’t matter that Keith was impulsive, hot-headed and a bit of a loner who didn’t even _want_ to be leader! The Black Lion had still chosen him over Shiro, leaving the team with two not-quite leaders: Shiro, who although not a paladin still gave orders and directed the team, and Keith, who deferred to Shiro on most things but then disagreed with him on others…something that often left the rest of the paladins in a very awkward middle, wondering whose orders they should follow.

Lance wasn’t entirely sure why, but the arguing unsettled him. It could be that seeing them butt heads gave him second-hand discomfort – watching people argue was never fun – or it might be that Keith always looked a little lost whenever he argued with Shiro. Like he couldn’t understand how he’d ended up disagreeing with the person he idolized most.

Lance had wondered on more than one occasion how a tough, independent loner like Keith could do the ‘kicked puppy’ look so well. And that look made him feel guilty every time he chose to follow Shiro’s orders over Keith’s. It wasn’t that Keith was a bad leader per se – he’d definitely improved since that first disastrous encounter with Lotor – but he just wasn’t _Shiro_. He didn’t have Shiro’s experience, or calm, or rational reasoning, and Keith wouldn’t know strategy if it jumped up and bit him in the ass! He was an _act-now-think-later_ kind of guy.

Sighing, Lance turned down an even longer, darker corridor. He wouldn’t ever say it because doing so would likely hurt Allura, but Lance missed the old team dynamics. True, Allura was an amazing paladin and had progressed much faster than any of them, and Lance could admit that the speed of the Red Lion gave him an adrenaline rush that wasn’t always there with Blue, but it wasn’t the same. Things had just been easier when Shiro was in Black, Keith was in Red and he was in Blue. It just felt like everyone was where they belonged, where they were _supposed_ to be, while this…this all felt really uncertain, like Voltron was missing its balance.

And to think he had wanted to fly the Black Lion before Keith had been chosen.

Lance heaved another sigh. He’d quickly discovered that flying another lion wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There was an emptiness where his connection with Blue had been that sometimes ached with loss. Sure, he had a bond with Red, but it wasn’t as deep as his connection with Blue – Blue had _understood_ him. Had been a constant, soothing presence in the back of his mind. He could only feel Red clearly when he was flying her, and even then there was none of Blue’s calm. Red was all fiery determination and quick action.

A lot like Keith really.

Lance wondered if Keith missed Red as much as he missed Blue. But he’d never ask him; Keith wasn’t a _share-your-feelings_ guy. He was more of a _I’ll-punch-feelings-until-they-go-away_ guy.

Something large and white loomed through the gloom at the end of the dimly-lit corridor and Lance squinted at it – a door. Okay, he definitely hadn’t been down this way before − all the other hallways had smaller sliding doors. Bayard at the ready, Lance made his way towards the door. Finding it slightly ajar, he slowly pushed it open by edging into the room…

And promptly tripped over something.

Lance swore under his breath as his hands hit the floor, bayard clattering and dematerialising on impact.

“Ow,” he muttered, twisting onto his butt to see what he’d tripped over, then promptly shrieked and backpedalled away.

He definitely hadn’t expected the something to be a body.

“Holy quiznak! Holy quiznak!” His heart flailed when he bumped into something behind him and realized it was another body. With a yelp, Lance activated his bayard and scrambled to his feet. 

Trembling and trying to get a grip – he was a paladin of Voltron, dammit! – Lance cast his gaze around the room. Just like the rest of the ship, the yellow lights were flickering in and out, making it hard to see anything. But after a few seconds, Lance was able to discern the dark shapes of two more bodies slumped over a table at the far side of the room. 

His wildly flapping heart sank like a stone. This was a damn death ship! He was lost on a damn death ship! And he would have to get near the bodies to see what killed them. Yay, lucky him.

Reluctantly, Lance knelt beside one of the bodies to examine it. It was hard to tell since this was a species he was unfamiliar with, but he was pretty sure that shrivelled skin stretched too-tight over bone wasn’t how it was supposed to look. If anything, the alien looked like it had been mummified. There were empty sockets where presumably its eyes should be, and its face seemed like nothing more than a hollowed-out husk. 

He couldn’t see any injuries on its front to determine what killed it. A quick look at the other body showed the same mummified effect but no injuries. Maybe there were injuries to their backs?

“Gross, gross, gross, gross,” Lance muttered, rolling one body onto its side to check. He was startled by a sudden, soft hiss from the corpse before its skin started to crumble. Lance gave a yell, then watched in horror as the body collapsed in on itself, until nothing but a pile of dust and rumpled clothing remained.

Lance stared, unable to process what had happened. He was pretty sure bodies weren’t supposed to do that. Unless the bodies of these aliens were different? But why didn’t the one he had tripped over disintegrate? 

Shuffling over to the body by the door, Lance could see that the arm sprawled across the doorway entrance _had_ in fact disintegrated. The rest of the body was intact, but Lance wasn’t too keen on testing to see if it would crumble too.

“Lance.”

The sudden voice above him made Lance shriek and jump from his crouched position, bayard firing before he could think about it.

“Stop shooting, you idiot!” hissed a familiar voice, as a body ducked for cover behind the door. 

Keith.

“What the hell, man?” demanded Lance. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“And you almost shot me, so I guess we’re even,” retorted Keith, stepping out from behind the door.

“Are you joking?! What kind of moron sneaks up on someone with a _gun?_ ” 

“I didn’t sneak. Besides, you should be more aware of your surroundings.”

Lance hated that Keith had a point. “What are you doing here?” he huffed out. “I thought you were checking the lower deck?”

“I was until I heard something scream.”

“Awww, were you scared of the noise?” 

Keith gave him a flat look. “Something screamed on a ship full of bodies. I came up here to check on you. Comms are out, remember?”

Lance blinked. Oh, right. 

He felt a small twinge of guilt when he realized that Keith had come to check on him after hearing those screams, but it had never occurred to him to see if Keith was okay. Lance was annoyed at himself; he was supposed to be a more considerate teammate than Keith. He probably didn’t think about it because Keith was more capable than him in hand to hand – a fact that still irritated Lance even after all these months in space. Yeah, that was it. He’d already known Keith would be fine.

It didn’t make him feel any better. 

But Keith didn’t seem to care that Lance hadn’t come looking for him; he was already squatting down beside the body at Lance’s feet and poking it experimentally. 

“Hey, stop that!” Lance cried, slapping Keith’s finger away. But it was too late; the body had already started to crumble. 

“Why did you do that?” Lance glared reproachfully as Keith stood up, dusting off his hands.

“I needed to see if they responded the same as the bodies below. It’s not like it matters, Lance, they’re already dead.”

“Yeah, but you could still show some res– wait! There are more bodies?”

Keith nodded. “A lot more, mostly leading to the cargo bay. The escape pods are in there.”

Lance grimaced. “So, they were running from whatever attacked them?”

“Probably. But they’d never have made it – I think whatever attacked them was smuggled in as cargo.”

“Uh, why?”

“Because there are two big crates in the cargo area that look like something broke _out_ of them. Plus, there are nests inside.”

Lance shuddered. “And that’s not creepy in the slightest. What do you suppose it was?”

“I don’t know, but I think we should get out of here.”

“What about finding whoever activated the distress beacon?” Lance protested. Not that he didn’t want to get off the murder ship because he totally did, but they had come here for a reason. 

“That beacon was probably activated during the attack,” Keith pointed out. “And whatever did this, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have left anyone alive.”

“But the BLIP-tech showed life on the ship.”

“I think it was picking up whatever attacked these people,” said Keith, eyes darting around warily.

It was then Lance realized that Keith had his bayard out and was standing in full alert mode, that he had _been_ in full alert mode ever since he’d found Lance. “You think whatever did this is still on the ship?” 

Keith glanced at him. “I don’t know. But something feels wrong on this ship, something…off. We need to go.”

And okay, not that Lance wanted to discount Keith’s intuition – he had some freaky sensing energy thing going on after all – but he was still overlooking one crucial detail. “Keith, whatever did this is probably long gone. I mean, the bodies have been here so long that they mummified!”

“We don’t know how long these bodies have been here,” Keith argued. “Besides, this ship is too humid for a body to mummify. It’s like whatever killed them literally sucked the life right out of them.”

“Oh, come on,” Lance scoffed. 

“I’m serious. It’s too dark up here to see anything properly, but there were suction marks on the bodies downstairs. Now, let’s _go_.”

The last words were practically hissed at Lance, and alarm shuddered through him at the urgency in Keith’s tone. Keith – the guy who never backed down from a fight – wanted to leave.

That was enough for Lance to take him seriously. “Okay.”

“Bayard out, keep your voice down,” said Keith, inching out the door and glancing around. Lance quickly complied.

They stayed close to each other as they edged down the hall, alert and silent. Having gotten turned around while searching, Lance let Keith take the lead since the red paladin seemed to know exactly where he was going.

Black. Black paladin, dammit!

Fifteen tense minutes later, they finally reached a corridor Lance recognized, the one near the command centre where he and Keith had boarded the ship. It was the only place on the upper deck where the lights were fully functional. 

Of course, it was that moment when the unearthly screaming started up again. Except this time, it sounded like it was coming from directly in front of them.

“Oh, God,” Lance croaked. “They’re in the command centre! How are we–”

He was cut off by Keith slapping a hand over his mouth and whispering, “Quiet! We’ll backtrack to another exit and jet-pack to the lions.”

Lance’s eyes bugged as he stared at Keith. Was that idiot really suggesting they just travel around in open space? Actually, who was he kidding? This was Keith – of _course_ he was suggesting that!

Keith removed his hand from Lance’s mouth and grabbed his arm, dragging him back the way they’d come, but they hadn’t gone more than ten feet when several screams erupted behind them. Glancing back, they saw four creatures emerge from the control room.

They were a pale greyish-green with no hair or distinguishing body characteristics, and despite their humanoid form, they walked on all fours like a dog. There were black, gaping holes where their eyes should be, and they sniffed at the air with beak-like noses. They had no mouths.

That confused Lance – how could they scream without any mouths?

He got his answer when they screamed again…through a gaping hole ringed with sharp teeth that suddenly appeared on their faces, then vanished when the screaming stopped.

“Run!” Keith yelled, as the creatures darted towards them with terrifying shrieks.

Lance didn’t need to be told twice. He raced down the corridor with Keith, firing off shots over his shoulder at the creatures pursuing them. He got in a few hits, but the creatures only stumbled before shaking themselves off and resuming pursuit. 

“These things don’t die!” Lance yelled. “What the hell are they?!”

“Worry about that later! Just focus on getting out of here!”

Lance groused under his breath. Run and hope for the best? That did _not_ sound like a solid plan to him.

Despite he and Keith being the fastest runners on the team, the creatures started to close the gap between them, the gaping maws appearing on their faces once again. Lance shuddered. He so did not want to find out what those teeth felt like!

“Lance!” Keith shouted suddenly. “Use your blaster to bring down the metal beams over them!”

“Are you crazy?! If we collapse part of the ceiling, we could get sucked out into space!”

“Our suits will protect us! Just do it, Lance!”

Cursing under his breath that Keith never seemed to think out his plans, Lance turned and fired at the beams. It took several hits, but eventually the massive beams tore away from the ceiling to crash on top of the creatures, burying them beneath the rubble.

Unfortunately, the beams were all connected by bars running the length of where the ceiling met the edges of the walls, creating a domino effect: the beams over Lance and Keith started to creak and rip away, making the whole corridor shudder and sending bits of debris raining down on them.

“Let’s get out of here!” Lance cried.

But they didn’t get far before a huge beam came away from the ceiling with a mighty screech, spewing out massive chunks of metal, wires and sparks that cascaded around them in a tornado of chaos. The lights flashed violently as the world shuddered around them. The noise was deafening, but Lance was just about able to hear Keith scream at him.

“LANCE! LOOK OUT!”

Lance turned his head just as a sheet of metal smacked into it, sending him reeling into darkness.

oOo

A shrill scream woke Lance, piercing his aching head and making him groan.

“Lance!” a familiar voice called. “Are you okay?”

“Wha…?” Lance mumbled, opening his eyes, then immediately shut them when lights flickered in and out, making his vision seesaw. 

Another scream echoed, causing his head to pound. Lance groaned again. “Stop…screamin’.”

“It’s not me,” said the familiar voice and Lance’s eyes slowly blinked open to find a well-known mullet hovering over him.

“Keith?”

“Yeah. Are you okay?”

“Uh…” Lance squinted up at Keith. The red paladin looked a little fuzzy, a light behind his head giving off a halo-effect. Lance swallowed. “’m I dead?”

Keith looked alarmed. “What? No!”

“Good. Don’ want…your mullet to be the first thing I see in heaven.”

Keith sighed in exasperation and held up his hand. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Lance blinked and some of the fuzz cleared, although Keith still looked weirdly skewed “Ah…three?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah. How’s your head?”

“Like my brain is doing a rumba. What’s–?”

A third scream cut him off and Lance felt the cold trickle of memories: creepy death ship, scary creatures, and the roof coming down. He moved to sit up, but a weight he hadn’t noticed pressing on his right side prevented him from getting his shoulders more than a few inches off the floor. He glanced down and dread pooled across his skin. Several pieces of debris had his legs and right arm pinned down.

A fourth scream from the wall of rubble just ten feet away from them caught his attention. Lance could hear scratching from inside the rubble.

“They’re not dead?” he whispered to Keith.

Keith shook his head. “No. And I think they’re digging through to us.”

Lance gulped. Oh, they were so royally screwed. 

“It’s okay,” said Keith, putting his hand on Lance’s shoulder, and guiding him back to lie against the floor. “I’ll get you out. But I need you to tell me where you’re hurt, okay?”

Lance nodded, a little shocked that Keith of all people actually possessed a bedside manner. “My head hurts,” he said, carefully assessing his body while Keith started moving the rubble off him. “And my side feels kinda bruised but I don’t think anything is broken.”

“What about your legs?” asked Keith, carefully lifting pieces of debris off Lance.

Lance gingerly flexed his toes and was relieved when they moved. His left leg seemed totally normal, but there was a sharp pain in his right calf. “My left leg is okay, but I think there’s something wrong with my right.”

“Can you move it?” asked Keith, not stopping his careful evacuation of the rubble.

Lance slowly rotated his foot, wincing when his calf burned. Something was definitely wet and sticky down there. “Pretty sure it’s bleeding but I can move it,” he told Keith, wondering vaguely if he should panic. 

“We can bind it once we get you out,” Keith reassured him. “So long as it’s not broken or caught on something, we can deal with it.”

“Okay,” whispered Lance, then shuddered when screams echoed from the rubble on the far side of them. It sounded like the creatures were getting closer. 

Clearly Keith thought so too because he picked up his pace. “What about your head?”

“It hurts but not too bad. There’s a weird crack across my vision though, everything looks kinda crooked.”

Keith paused long enough to roll his eyes at Lance. “That’s because there’s a crack running the length of your visor.” 

Lance huffed. “Well, how was I supposed to know? I’m concussed!”

“Apparently not concussed enough to stop you disagreeing with me.”

“Hey, I’m the one who’s trapped and injured here! You’re the one who shouldn’t be arguing with me!”

“It’s a good thing, Lance. If you’re okay enough to argue with me, your injuries can’t be too bad.”

Lance huffed, but he had to admit, their usual banter had lessened the panic threatening to consume him.

Until the skittering of stones from the far mound of rubble. Lance and Keith glanced over to see one of the creatures’ hands clawing its way out from inside the rubble.

“Oh, God,” Lance gulped.

“Lance, no. We are getting out of here. I need you to stay focused, okay?”

“But–”

“Focus!” Keith grunted, heaving a large sheet of metal from Lance’s right side that took most of the weight off his right arm. Lance wiggled his fingers and was relieved to find, although bruised and sore, they weren’t broken. He was also finally able to sit up.

More stones rattled from the rubble across the way, and a head appeared through the rapidly growing hole.

“Keith, no pressure or anything, but it’s coming!” 

Keith ignored him, lifting two small rocks off Lance’s hand and hurtling them in the direction of the creature digging its way out. One of the rocks bounced off the creature’s skull, but only succeeded in making it scream. 

“Keith, what the hell?! Don’t make the scary monster mad!”

“Little late for that,” said Keith, pulling off the final slab across Lance’s hand just as the creature’s shoulders appeared through the hole. “There, your hands are free. You okay to get the rest off?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so.”

“Good. I’ll deal with that thing.”

Grabbing his bayard, Keith jumped to his feet and headed for the creature practically slithering out of the hole.

“Keith!” yelled Lance. “Those things don’t die, remember? Son of a quiznak! _Keith!_ ”

“Still don’t think you’re using that word correctly!” Keith called back.

“No one freaking cares ‘cause no one knows what it really means! Now, don’t be an idiot and get back here! Keith! KEITH!”

Naturally, he ignored Lance. Swearing under his breath that he would throttle Keith if they survived this, Lance watched him slice at the creature’s back. His bayard cut through skin, causing the creature to shriek and tumble the rest of the way out of the hole. With lightning speed, the creature whipped onto all fours and turned on Keith, shrieking as it charged towards him. Lance could see the cut on its back sealing itself closed. 

He groaned loudly. These things could self- _heal?_ Perfect, just perfect. 

Lance quickly took up where Keith had left off removing the rubble. It was slow going because he lacked the advantage of Keith’s mobility, and he couldn’t reach his lower legs until he had removed the debris from his upper legs…a difficult feat when he came across a sheet of metal on his upper thighs that was pinned down by the debris on his lower thighs. Lance was just glad none of this stuff was particularly heavy. Aside from the occasional small rock of something that resembled concrete, most of the metal appeared to be lightweight. Luckily for Lance – if it weighed the same as most other metals, he probably wouldn’t be breathing right now.

Tugging to pull the sheet of metal out from where it was pinned, Lance chanced a glance at Keith and was alarmed to see him losing.

After the first lucky strike, Keith didn’t appear to have gotten another hit – the only mark on the creature was the first one, now almost healed. Keith was mostly dodging swipes from the creature’s clawed hands and snaps from that hideous mouth, but he was moving much slower than Lance was used to seeing from him.

A jump and roll away from the creature revealed why. Keith’s black undersuit was torn across his lower back, a nasty gash bleeding beneath it.

Lance groaned because _why_ hadn’t that _idiot_ told him he’d been injured too?!

Tugging harder on the sheet of metal, Lance managed to dislodge it from under whatever was pinning it down and flung it aside. His upper thighs were now almost free, and Lance felt a surge of hope when he caught sight of the hilt of his bayard just beside his right knee. Clearly that had been buried too.

He wasn’t sure why it hadn’t dematerialized back into the armour. Maybe because the armour was damaged? Or maybe because Lance himself hadn’t willed it to? Either way he didn’t care. All he knew was that once he had the rubble off, he would have a weapon to defend himself.

However good it would be against an apparently unkillable _monster._

Another of those piercing screams had Lance jerking around to find the creature herding Keith back towards the rubble it had dug its way out of. Towards the hole that another creature was currently exiting!

“Keith! There’s another one!” Lance shouted.

He saw Keith grit his teeth before spinning around and slashing at the emerging creature, then jumping sideways to avoid the creature in front, who had charged him as soon as he turned. 

“KEEP GOING!” he yelled at Lance over the creatures’ screaming.

Lance worked as fast as he could. He had no idea what they were supposed to do against those things, but at least fighting gave them some chance. If Keith went down, they were both dead!

He worked so quickly that the metal sliced through his gloves, making his hands bleed. But Lance gritted his teeth and kept going. Their lives depended on it.

He had almost gotten his bayard free when a yell from Keith made him look up. One of the creatures had him pinned against the wall, and it was only Keith’s bayard pushing back against its throat that was keeping it at bay. Unfortunately, the creature didn’t seem remotely bothered by the green blood spilling from its throat beneath the blade, and its teeth were snapping in Keith’s face. The other creature was stalking towards them, tattered shreds of skin hanging from its side. Keith had obviously got in another hit, but it didn’t look like it was going to help him – the skin was already knitting itself back together.

Lance scrabbled frantically at the rubble covering his bayard. Maybe if he got that out he could shoot the creatures – a head shot might be harder to recover from. Anything to buy them some time!

Another of those terrifying screams made Lance jerk again, just in time to see Keith kick the first creature away from him right as the second one pounced. Its mouth latched onto Keith’s right arm and he grunted, slashing at the creature. But it was impervious to the blade, ignoring each stab and slash as Keith hacked at it, literally spraying the ground with green blood and chunks of greyish-green flesh.

Lance watched helplessly as the chunks of flesh morphed with the blood, forming a viscous fluid that rolled towards the creature’s body like some kind of freaky green mercury, before amalgamating with its legs. Several lumps that looked like insects crawling under its skin travelled up along the leg, then rolled up its back, slowly spreading over the wounded areas and knitting the flesh back together.

Okay, that was some serious Eldritch horror stuff right there. Lance would be having nightmares about this for months. 

If he lived that long.

“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” he cried, digging desperately around his bayard. Not stopping his frantic excavations, Lance threw another quick glance at Keith.

The other paladin had driven his bayard into the head of the creature latched onto his arm, but to no avail. The creature had a death grip on his arm and Lance could hear the armour cracking beneath those fearsome teeth. Even worse, the other creature had circled behind Keith and was now crouching to jump.

“KEITH! BEHIND YOU!” Lance screamed.

Yanking his bayard out of the creature’s head, Keith turned to meet the other, slashing his blade across its eyes with deadly precision. The creature shrieked when it missed Keith by inches, flying past him and crashing to the ground with a tumble. 

It was the distraction the other one needed.

Before Keith could turn his attention back to the monster chowing down on his armour, the thing had flung itself behind him, dragging his arm backwards into an unnatural angle. There was a loud crack, followed by a cry from Keith, and he reached towards the trapped arm…then hesitated as if debating how to grip it and not let go of his bayard. Then Keith’s face twisted from pain into determination, and he spun into his trapped arm to face the creature.

But the creature turned with him, yanking his arm behind him once more and causing another loud crack that made Keith yell even louder. Turning into the trapped arm again, Keith slashed at the creature’s neck like he was trying to behead it. 

Of course, that was the moment the other creature pounced, knocking Keith to the ground. The two creatures were on him in a second.

Lance felt his heart veer from rapid-fear-beating right into frenzied-terror-beating. Keith’s left hand was now pinned beneath the second creature, while its teeth clacked violently off the visor of his helmet. The first creature’s teeth still had its death grip on Keith’s right arm and seemed to have finally broken through the armour − Lance could see splinters of white sticking up around its mouth, drops of red splattering the surrounding areas. Keith’s right hand was spasming against the ground in pain.

“Hang on, Keith! Hang on!” Lance called, ignoring every ache in his body as he tore into the debris to get his bayard out. The hilt was now uncovered but still refused to budge when he tried to pull it out. Probably caught on something.

He dug and pulled and scrabbled at the debris like a man possessed, ignoring the horrible cracking noises now coming from behind him and trying to convince himself they weren’t the sound of the creatures eating Keith. Whatever they’d done to the aliens on this ship, their bodies had been left pretty much intact. Lance just had to get his bayard out, blow their heads off, and Keith would be fine.

He’d almost convinced himself until an unnaturally loud _crack_ sounded, and Lance looked just in time to see one of the creatures tearing away the chest-plate of Keith’s armour with nothing more than its clawed fingers and teeth.

_Oh, crap!_

Lance yanked at his bayard with everything he had, dislodging it just as another scream echoed. One that was unmistakably human. He jerked around so fast that he practically gave himself whiplash. Concussed brain swimming from the stress, Lance blinked and squinted in Keith’s direction, but the only thing he could make out were his teammate’s legs kicking desperately while his pinned left hand scrabbled at the ground for his bayard. The rest of Keith was buried beneath the creatures, both of which appeared to be doing something to his neck and shoulders that Lance couldn’t see, but it sounded like they were devouring him. He could hear horrible wet, sucking noises over Keith’s panting gasps.

Hysteria almost shut Lance down, and he struggled to get a grip on himself. It wasn’t until Keith screamed again that Lance found something to focus on.

_You are a paladin of Voltron and your teammate needs you! You can do this!_

Hands shaking and heart thumping, Lance sucked in a shaky breath. Then another. Slowly, he lifted his bayard and took aim. But his hands were still shaking, too great a chance he could hit Keith. Lance breathed in and out again.

_Come on, you can do this. Keith’s counting on you._

A final breath and the shaking reduced. It should be enough to take the shot. Lance twisted around and, even with his legs pinned, managed to slide into some semblance of his sniper pose. Carefully, he took aim and fired at the creature nearest to him.

The shot sliced into its skull, making a sizzling sound. To Lance’s horror, the wound immediately sealed shut and the creature didn’t stop what it was doing to Keith. In fact, its only reaction was to scream through a mouth ringed with teeth that appeared on its freaking _back_ , before disappearing once more.

_What. The. Ever-loving QUIZNAK?_

Lance fired several more shots, hitting both creatures in the head but only eliciting the same response: shrill screams through a mouth that appeared in their backs, then vanishing when the screams stopped.

Panic bubbled again. These things really were unkillable! Oh god, what was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to _DO?!_

Keith screamed again, weaker this time, and his legs collapsed from kicking into violent shaking. 

Tears welled up in Lance’s eyes. Keith was dying. Those things were killing him, and he was going to die right in front of Lance before those things turned on him. Lance had never felt more terrified. They were going to die here in the ass-end-of-nowhere-space, leaving Voltron without two of its paladins and the universe to Lotor’s mercy. 

He wondered if his family would ever find out what happened to him.

That was enough for his eyes to spill over. He’d never see his mom again…never see his family again…he wouldn’t be able to save earth from the Galra…Lance just hoped Voltron would be able to do it without him and Keith.

The sound of rocks skittering made him look up. A third creature had emerged from the hole. It sniffed the air, then circled around where the other two were still making that nightmarish sucking sound over Keith and headed straight for Lance. 

Trembling, Lance watched the creature advance on him. This was it. He was going to die. But if he was going to die, then he was going out with dignity. No screaming, no begging, no crying…just calm acceptance. 

Lance was going out like a man.

A low groan from Keith drew his attention, and he could see that the red paladin had finally found his bayard and was trying to stab the creatures pinning him down. His fingers could barely hold the bayard, but he was stabbing shakily upright with what little remained of his strength. Defiant to the end, a true red paladin.

No. Black paladin. Keith was the black paladin now. _Lance_ was the red paladin, the fiery one supposed to run on instincts, the one who ran straight into danger without thinking. Or at least, that’s how Keith had done it. Lance knew he was a different kind of red paladin. 

And as this red paladin thought about facing death like a man – no screaming, no begging, no crying…just calm acceptance – his instincts screamed, _SCREW THAT!!!_

Huh. Maybe not so different from Keith after all. 

The creature advanced on him and Lance exhaled through his nose, pulling his bayard up to aim. The hell he was going down without a fight! This guy was going to lose body parts before it tasted any of Lance McClain!

“Alright, ugly,” Lance muttered, “let’s see if I can make you bleed.”

As the creature loomed over Lance, it screamed, the freaky mouth appearing in its face. This close, Lance could see some kind of weird tube-tongue thing, ringed with smaller teeth lolling inside there. That looked nice and vulnerable.

Then the tongue slithered out like a slimy octopus tentacle, and Lance fired directly into the hideous, gaping mouth. 

He’d been hoping a close-up shot would do more damage than a long-range one, but Lance wasn’t expecting the thing’s whole head to explode! He watched in shock as the creature rocked back on its knees, clawed hands flying up to where its head had been…before its body started to disintegrate from the neck down.

Lance didn’t have time to process what he was seeing, because the two creatures pinning Keith jerked up with matching screams, their heads jerking in a full-on exorcist swivel in Lance’s direction.

Like these things needed anything else to make them even creepier.

Shrieking in what sounded like fury, they bounded towards Lance. He fired his blaster, but the shots did little more than make them stumble. He even got one of them straight in the mouth like he’d done to the almost fully disintegrated creature, so why didn’t it go down?

Firing off multiple shots, Lance thought fast. The tongue! Those things had made sucking sounds over Keith, and Keith had mentioned suction marks on the bodies below, meaning whatever they did to suck the life out of people involved a tongue. It had to be that tentacle tongue thing! That had to be their weak point!

The creatures reached him before Lance could formulate a plan. He shot into the mouth of one as soon as he saw the first sign of a tongue appear through its screaming mouth, but he barely saw its head explode before the second one slammed him back into the ground. 

Lance grimaced, seeing stars as his aching head rang from the contact. He could hear the creature’s teeth and tongue crashing against his visor, and its claws scratching at his armour. The thing was freakishly heavy, and far stronger than it looked. Lance struggled to get his bayard out from where it was pinned between his and the creature’s chests. Something cracked loudly in front of him, and his eyes widened when he saw the crack in his visor spreading beneath the creature’s attack. He was finished if that thing got into his face!

Desperately, he yanked and yanked, the blaster pulling free a split second before the visor shattered. Closing his eyes against the shards, Lance jabbed his bayard up into what he hoped was the creature’s mouth and fired…

…then felt a sticky, viscous fluid splatter all over his face.

The weight pinning him tumbled off. Lance wiped his face, spluttering when something foul dripped into his mouth. He spat violently and sat up, opening his eyes just in time to see the third creature crumbling into dust with the rest of its freaky comrades.

“Good riddance,” muttered Lance, before glancing at Keith.

His teammate was still flat on his back, unmoving. 

“Keith? _Keith!_ ” 

No response. 

Swallowing, Lance tried to get up, but was reminded very quickly of the debris still pinning his lower legs.

“Oh, god, Keith, please don’t be dead,” said Lance, scrabbling at the remaining debris. 

It took several minutes, during which time Keith never responded to any of his calls, before Lance had unearthed enough debris to pull his legs free. His left leg came out pretty easily, but it was only with a great deal of pain that he manged to extract his right leg. One look at it revealed a deep, bleeding gash running several inches along his calf where the armour had splintered apart. Lance was pretty sure his leg would have been mangled if he hadn’t been wearing his armour. And he was a little freaked when he realized that on earth, an injury like this would likely prove difficult to heal. But the Altean healing pods would totally be able to fix it.

Lance hoped so, anyway.

Putting weight on the leg was impossible, so he dragged himself over to Keith. It was tough going. The adrenaline now wearing off, Lance could feel every ache in his body and his brain thumped against his skull like it wanted to break out of there. He also felt a little nauseous and hoped he wouldn’t throw up. Lance _hated_ throwing up.

He reached Keith’s legs and immediately grabbed one, shaking it as he dragged himself up towards Keith’s face. “Keith! Hey, come on, man, wake up! Keith!”

Keith never stirred.

Reaching his upper torso, Lance sucked in a breath. Keith’s helmet had been knocked off and he wasn’t just his usual shade of pale, he was _corpse_ white, with snow white lips and shadows dark as bruises ringing his eyes.

Lifting a shaking hand to Keith’s neck, Lance winced to see his right shoulder sitting far lower than the left: either dislocated or a broken collarbone. Maybe both. Two wounds, like red holes, blotched his skin beneath the torn black under suit− one just below the hollow of his throat and the other almost directly over his heart. Both wounds were two or three inches deep, blood tickling from them, and there were gashes across his arms and torso where their claws had dug in. But most horrifying of all was that the skin around them had begun to shrivel into the mummified appearance of the other bodies on this ship.

“Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead,” Lance muttered, fumbling for a pulse. It took a minute before he finally found one, barely pulsing beneath his fingertips. Heart pounding, Lance checked Keith’s breathing and his anxiety skyrocketed at how faint it was.

“Quiznak, I need to get you to a pod!”

Except that was easier said than done. They were trapped between two walls of rubble from the cave-in. The one Lance had been partially pinned under was smaller, and they could have climbed over it if they’d been in, y’know, any _shape_ to do so! 

Lance bit his lip and stared at Keith. He definitely wasn’t going anywhere under his own power, but Lance’s leg was still bleeding and aching something fierce…even if they weren’t trapped, there was no way he could have carried Keith back to the lions.

He looked at the blaster still clutched in his hands, then glanced at the walls. Shooting a hole and letting themselves get sucked out into space would have been an option if their suits weren’t compromised. But the creatures had shredded the torso of Keith’s undersuit, and Lance’s leg armour was too cracked to withstand longer than a few seconds in open space. Plus, the visor of his helmet was completely shattered.

A quick glance at where the creatures had knocked off Keith’s helmet revealed that too was cracked. It wouldn’t last long enough to get either of them back to the lions, and that was even if Lance’s jet-pack was _working_. He wasn’t willing to risk it after getting buried beneath that rubble.

“Wish you were still the red paladin,” he told Keith. “Red was always charging to your rescue whenever your dumb ass got into trouble. Wish she’d do the same for me.”

Forlorn, Lance couldn’t help but wonder why the Red Lion _wasn’t_ rushing to his rescue. Wasn’t he supposed to be the red paladin now? Or did he just not matter as much to Red as Keith did? Maybe Lance wasn’t really the red paladin after all!

He quickly shook himself. Now was not the time for his insecurities. Besides, if that were true, Red would have rushed to Keith’s rescue as soon as those creatures started sucking the life out of him. Unfortunately, the Black Lion exhibited about as much interest in rescuing any of its paladins as– 

A sudden scream had him whipping back towards the hole to find another set of claws digging their way out. 

He’d forgotten about the fourth creature. How could he forget about the fourth creature?

Gripping his bayard, Lance dragged himself wearily towards the hole. He was _so_ demanding a vacation after this mission.

The creature’s arms, head and shoulders were now through the hole, but no mouth appeared in its face for Lance to take aim at its weak spot. So, he waited for the creature to drag its body through the opening. There was a massive hole in its chest that was trying to seal itself, while the flap of skin hanging from its side was clearly struggling to knit back onto its torso. The bottom of its left leg was totally gone – although Lance could see the green mercury stuff following it out of the hole – making it pretty clear this creature had taken the brunt of the cave-in.

Lance couldn’t bring himself to feel even a little sorry for it. “Whassa matter, ugly? Bad day?”

The creature’s head whipped in his direction, screaming when its mouth appeared. Still no sign of the nasty octopus tongue though.

“Yeah, I hear you,” Lance continued, taking aim as the creature began to drag itself towards him. “Having a pretty crappy day myself. But you know what would make me feel better?”

The tongue slipped through its mouth and Lance fired, making its head explode. “That,” he said, watching the thing disintegrate. “That makes me feel better.”

The last of the creatures crumbled into dust and Lance made to return to Keith, before freezing and turning back to the hole. The creatures had clawed in through there, maybe they could get out that way? He dragged himself over to the hole and pulled himself up to peer into it.

A visible tunnel had been dug out beneath the metal beams and mounds of debris, one that was definitely big enough for Lance and Keith to crawl through. Not that Keith would be up to crawling. Lance glanced back over his shoulder to where he lay unconscious. Would he even be up to dragging Keith through that tunnel? Lance was so exhausted at this point that he wasn’t even sure what was keeping him going. It sure as hell wasn’t adrenaline; that had crashed the moment he shot the third creature.

Chewing on his lip, Lance peered back into the tunnel. It was pretty dark, probably even more so further in without the feeble illumination the barely working lights out here were casting. Lance tested his helmet’s lights and got nothing. What if the lack of visibility caused him to knock into something unstable in the tunnel? He could bring the whole thing down on top of them.

He half-crawled, half-dragged his exhausted ass over to Keith’s helmet and checked its lights, but they were dead too. 

Sighing, Lance looked back at the hole yet again. He supposed he could crawl through the tunnel alone? He’d probably get back to the lions quicker that way, and once back in Red he could come and rescue Keith. 

One look at his vulnerable teammate, totally unconscious and nonresponsive, made Lance veto that idea. Keith was a sitting duck if there were any more of those things on board. No way in hell was Lance leaving him here all alone to get picked off. 

“Guess I’m gonna have to find some way of getting you through with me, buddy,” Lance said, moving to put Keith’s helmet on so his head would be protected if they caused a cave-in. He stopped when he noticed how cold Keith was. 

Putting the back of his hand against Keith’s cheek, Lance was alarmed to find it icy.

“Quiznak!” he cursed, tossing the helmet aside and fumbling for a pulse again. It was even weaker than before, and more terrifying yet was that the skin around Keith’s hairline had started to prune, like skin left in water too long. Whatever those things had done was still taking its toll. Keith was literally fading right before Lance’s eyes. 

The panic was back again, this time threatening to steal the air right from Lance’s lungs. He couldn’t let Keith die! He was his teammate – his _friend!_ Lance had to save him! 

Except he had no idea how to treat whatever the creatures had done to Keith.

“C’mon, Keith, please don’t do this to me!” Lance grasped the sides of Keith’s head between his hands as Keith’s breathing started to stutter. “Don’t do this to Shiro!”

Could he get him back to the lions on time? Or should he even _move_ him? Keith was weakening so fast that Lance was certain dragging him through that tunnel under the debris would kill him. Yet staying here would definitely kill him. 

Despite their obvious lack of time, Lance dithered between his options, terrified of making the wrong decision. He’d never imagined he’d be in the situation of making a decision on how to save another person’s _life._

That’s when he heard noise coming from beyond the rubble. 

Lance’s heart sank. Please not more of those creatures. They didn’t have time for this! 

Hefting his bayard into his hands yet again, Lance wearily dragged himself back towards the hole. But instead of the screaming he expected, he heard the faint hum of…voices.

“Hello? _Hello?!_ ” Lance bellowed into the tunnel, too shattered to consider whether the voices were friendly or not. “Is anyone there? We’re trapped!”

There was a pause, followed by faint scrabbling before a familiar voice echoed from a distance, “Lance?”

Lance almost sobbed. Allura. “Oh, thank quiznak. Yes! YES! We’re here! We’re trapped!”

“We’re coming, Lance,” another voice – Shiro – called. “Just hang tough until we can dig through.”

“No, you don’t understand!” Lance cried back. “There’s no time! I don’t think Keith’s gonna make it, you have to get through _now!_ ”

“Keith? What’s wrong with–”

“NOW, SHIRO! NOW!” Lance screamed, totally done with keeping calm now that his team was here.

There was a moment of silence before Shiro replied. “Stand back, Lance. I’m giving you ten seconds.”

Lance immediately threw himself down and dragged himself back to Keith with as much speed as he could muster, ignoring the agony it caused his leg. He had no idea what Shiro planned to do, but he still curled himself over Keith, protecting his head and his upper body. 

There was the sound of rumbling, frenzied digging. It felt like the world was crumbling around Lance, and then–

CRASH! 

It almost sounded like the ceiling had collapsed again, except when Lance glanced up from where he was crouched over Keith, Shiro was standing in front of the rubble, covered in dust. His Galra arm was activated and there was a massive hole behind him.

“Shiro,” Lance whispered. “Help him, Shiro, you have to help him!”

Shiro was beside them in an instant. “It’s okay, Lance. We’ve got you.”

Allura, Hunk and Pidge emerged from the hole.

“Lance!” Hunk cried, dashing over and grabbing him up in a gentle hug. “You’re alive! You’re okay!”

Lance was definitely not okay. Lance was so far from okay he couldn’t remember what okay felt like. He shook his head. “Keith needs a pod! I don’t know what they did, but he’s fading away! He’s turning into a mummy like the others!”

“Mummy?” repeated Hunk, eyebrows arching in confusion before he swiped a hand over Lance’s hair. “Hey, you’re bleeding! Did you hit your head?”

“N- yes! But that’s not the point! They sucked the life out of him! He needs a pod!”

It was then Allura gasped, and Lance looked over to where she and Shiro were bent over Keith. “No time for triage, Shiro!” said Allura, voice sharp. “You must get Keith to a pod immediately! Pidge, get them back to the castle. Tell Coran it was a Moevaydon.”

“But–” Shiro began, scooping Keith up carefully.

Allura cut him off. “You only have a few doboshes, Shiro!” 

Shiro’s jaw snapped shut and he sprang to his feet, Keith hanging limp in his arms. He ran back towards the debris, Pidge leading the way through the hole he had created.

“Lance,” Allura turned to him urgently, “did they get you?”

Lance shook his head, guessing she was talking about the creatures. 

“Where are they now?” Allura demanded.

“Dust,” Lance replied, his head swimming. He was so tired. “I shot them in their nasty-ass tongues and their heads exploded. Will Keith be okay?”

Allura ignored the question. “How many of them did you shoot, Lance?”

“Four. They were hard to kill.”

“I imagine they were,” said Allura grimly. “You did very well, Lance. Let’s get you back to the castle and into a pod.”

“What about Keith?” Lance asked. “S’he gonna be okay?”

Allura didn’t meet his eyes. “I hope so.”

Lance stared at her. “But…Keith has to be…he’s still alive so you can fix him, right?”

“We will do our very best, Lance.”

It wasn’t good enough. Lance wanted a definite reassurance that Keith would be okay, that all this hadn’t been for nothing. Because they had boarded this creepy ship to rescue people, but everyone was already dead! If Keith wasn’t okay, then all of it would have been for nothing.

Emotions spiralling, body crashing, and feeling a little bit like he was losing control, Lance buried his head in his hands.

“Lance,” Hunk’s gentle hand was on his back, “c’mon, man, let’s get you back to the castle. You don’t look good.”

Lance nodded, allowing Hunk and Allura to put his arms around each of their necks and lift him to his feet. He allowed himself to be carried back to the lions. He listened to Hunk’s worried ramblings and Allura’s soothing assurances. He answered when they asked him questions and drank water when they gave it to him. He nodded when they said he’d done a great job.

But he didn’t feel any of it.

oOo

A cool breeze tickled the back of Lance’s neck and dusted across his cheeks.

He shivered. Why was it so cold?

Voices murmured somewhere in front of him, the familiar sound bringing him back to reality.

Right, cryo-pod.

A hissing noise announced the pod’s opening, and Lance blinked open his eyes as he stumbled forward. A pair of sturdy hands caught him before he could hit the floor.

Damn sleep-chamber knees.

“Lance! Welcome back!” cried Hunk, pulled him into a hug.

“Nice to see you too, buddy,” mumbled Lance from where his face was squashed into Hunk’s enormous shoulder.

Hunk released him and then Shiro was there, one hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Good to have you back, Lance. How do you feel?”

“Better.” Lance glanced around to see Pidge, Allura and Coran all beaming at him.

But no Keith. 

Glancing over his shoulder towards the pods, Lance spotted Keith suspended in one of them. He was still the colour of a corpse. 

Lance swallowed. “Is Keith going to be okay?”

“It was a little shaky there for a while,” admitted Coran. “But he should be out of the pod in another quintant or two.”

Lance sighed in relief before asking, “What _were_ those things?”

“Moevaydon,” answered Allura. “We shall tell you about them while you get something to eat. Would you like to change into your regular clothing first?”

Lance glanced down at the white cryo-suit and grimaced. Definitely. These suits were _not_ a good look on anyone.

Twenty minutes later, Lance was showered, clothed, and seated in the kitchen, a bowl of food goo in front of him and his teammates gathered around him. The mice were perched by his bowl, begging for scraps, and it would have been exactly like the first time Lance came out of a cryo-pod except for the fact that Keith was missing.

Lance was surprised to find that he missed the dumb mullet’s stupid face.

“Okay,” he said, digging into his food goo, “tell me about those things.”

“They’re called Moevaydon,” Allura began, looking surprisingly tired. “A foul race of creatures that have been hunted to near extinction because of the threat they present to all beings. They need quintessence to sustain themselves–”

“They didn’t look like they needed anything to sustain themselves,” Lance interrupted. “They were able to self-heal, which was like, the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“They are difficult to kill because of the vast amounts of quintessence stored in their bodies,” explained Allura. “But destroying their heart will usually kill them.”

“Heart?” Lance blinked. “But…they only went down when I shot their tongues off!”

“Their tongues?” repeated Hunk. “You were serious about that? I thought that was the concussion talking.”

“The tongue is their heart,” Coran clarified. “It forms their core and is connected to their entire central nervous system. It’s also what they use to drain their victims, a most unpleasant experience by all accounts–”

“Drain their victims?” Lance felt sick. “Of _what?_ Blood?” Were space vampires a thing?

“Blood and quintessence,” answered Allura. “That is what a Moevaydon does, it drains living creatures of their lifeforce – both energy and biological – leaving nothing but shells behind.”

“Those bodies on the ship,” Lance whispered, horrified. “Is that what they did to Keith?”

Allura sighed. “Yes. And his quintessence continued to drain, even after the creatures were dead, because quintessel wounds need to be sealed using energy.”

Lance was confused. “Can the pods do that?”

Coran shook his head. “The pods only slow the drain. Allura had to perform a rejuvenation ceremony similar to the one she did on the Balmera to heal Keith’s quintessel channels.”

Lance glanced at Allura. No wonder she looked tired. “That all sounds– is Keith really going to be okay?”

Coran nodded. “He will. But he’s going to need to rest for several quintants to replenish his quintessence. The pods can’t do that for him.”

Lance snorted. Fat chance of getting Keith to take it easy – he spent half his time on the training deck!

“Oh, Keith’s going to rest,” Shiro spoke up grimly, correctly guessing what Lance was thinking. “I’ll make sure of that.”

Lance pushed away his now empty bowl. “What about you guys? Why did you come after us? Weren’t you all on your own missions?”

“Coran got worried when you didn’t check in,” Pidge answered. “Shiro and I got back from Privax while he was trying to contact you. Once we realized the comms were down, we radioed Hunk and Allura to meet us at the distress beacon coordinates.”

“I knew something was off on that ship as soon as we set foot on it,” Allura added. “The energy felt so wrong.”

“Keith felt the same thing,” said Lance, wondering not for the first time if it was a Galra thing that Keith was almost as sensitive to energy as Allura. “What caused it?”

Allura rubbed her temple. “The Moevaydon’s extract and warp quintessence to suit their bodies’ purposes. It twists it into something unnatural, poisoning the areas around them. That warped energy was the reason the comms didn’t work.”

“Of course they were.” Lance scowled. “Next time there’s a distress signal from an abandoned ship, we’re sending in drones to check it out first!”

“We will definitely be changing our tactics for boarding other ships after this,” Shiro agreed. “But first, why don’t you tell us the full story of what happened?”

Lance shuddered, before detailing the whole horrifying ordeal for his team. He hoped he’d never have to talk about it again after this.

When he was done, Shiro shook his head. “It sounds like there was nothing you or Keith could have done to prevent what happened. You didn’t know what you were up against and that’s not on either of you.” He gripped Lance’s shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. “But you did a great job in a difficult situation, Lance. Well done.”

Something warm fluttered in Lance’s chest at the praise. He opened his mouth to respond, but a massive yawn took him by surprise instead.

Shiro chuckled. “Okay, time for bed. The cryo-pods might heal you, but there’s no substitute for real sleep. Besides, it’s getting late and I think we could all use the rest after these last few days.”

Lance – unlike Pidge, who complained loudly that she needed to finish the project she was working on – was totally ready to follow Shiro’s suggestion. Bidding his teammates goodnight, he headed for his room, where he practically collapsed across the bed, feeling tired enough to sleep for a week.

Except sleep didn’t come.

Lance tossed and turned, but every time he closed his eyes he could hear those foul creatures screaming, could hear _Keith_ screaming. It wasn’t exactly conductive to sleep. Finally, after two hours of pointless tossing, he got up. Without really thinking about it, he headed for the cryo-chamber. Maybe double-checking that Keith was okay would relax his nerves enough to fall asleep?

The overhead lights in the cryo-chamber were off, the only illumination coming from the blue light of Keith’s pod, but the darkened effect was calming rather than creepy. 

“Hey, mullet,” greeted Lance affectionately, coming to a halt in front of the pod.

Keith was still very pale, but he looked a lot less corpse-like now, even with the pod’s blue light adding a slightly unnatural cast to his skin. Lance relaxed a little. Keith was alive. They’d both gotten off that murder ship and those things couldn’t hurt any more people. He supposed that alone made the mission worth it after all.

Lance relaxed a little. He might miss home terribly, but they were doing good as Voltron, they were making a difference. Fighting the Galra empire protected people, including earth and Lance’s family. He could draw comfort from that. 

He stayed like that for several minutes, watching Keith and letting the quiet of the castle wash over him. It was a peaceful quiet, nothing like the creepy silence of the abandoned ship. Lance was just debating heading back to bed and trying to sleep when–

“Couldn’t sleep either, huh?” 

Lance shrieked at the sudden voice, his perfectly created zen shattering.

Heart thumping, he spun around, then clutched at his chest when he recognized their leader. “Holy cow, Shiro! Don’t sneak up on people!”

“Sorry. You okay?”

“Fine. Just…warn a guy next time. My heart is fragile, man, it definitely _cannot_ cope with mature ratings scary, you know what I’m saying?”

“I do.” Shiro came to stand beside him and asked again, “Are you okay?”

“Fine.”

“Then why aren’t you sleeping? I thought you were tired.”

“I am. Just…a little wired, I guess. I keep thinking about what happened on that ship.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Lance gave a half shrug. “It’s not important.”

“Lance, if it’s bothering you then it’s definitely important.”

He sighed. “It’s just that…I can’t help feel like there was _more_ I could have done. If I’d been faster, then maybe Keith wouldn’t have gotten hurt so badly.”

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. “Lance, you were able to hit an incredibly small target despite being injured, pinned down and under attack. That is pretty damn impressive, and the rest of us couldn’t have done it.”

“Allura could have done it.”

“Allura is a ten-thousand-year-old magical alien princess, there’s a lot she can do that we can’t. But I’m pretty sure even she couldn’t have made that shot. Only our sharpshooter could have done that.”

Something warm fluttered again in Lance’s chest at the praise. It meant a lot coming from Shiro.

“Keith is alive because of you.” Shiro squeezed his shoulder before releasing it. “Thank you, Lance.”

Lance glanced up in surprise at the gratitude. But when he saw Shiro’s eyes on Keith, a small, worried frown creasing his brows, he remembered that they were close. Lance didn’t know the story there, only that Keith had known Shiro before Voltron, maybe even before the Garrison. It was yet another puzzle piece in the mysterious pasts of Shiro and Keith. Lance itched to ask, but knew it wasn’t his place. That was information to be offered when they were ready, not pulled out because of Lance’s curiosity. “I think I’m going to try and sleep. Thanks for listening, Shiro.”

Shiro smiled. “I’m here anytime you need to talk.”

Lance nodded and returned the smile. “Night, Shiro.”

“Goodnight, Lance.”

oOo

Lance tapped his foot impatiently, staring in at Keith’s pod. “Isn’t he done yet?”

Pidge rolled her eyes. “He’s not a turkey, Lance.”

“You know what I mean! Why isn’t the pod opening?”

“Patience, young Lance,” said Coran cheerfully. “Just a few more ticks.”

Lance huffed, grumbling to himself. He didn’t see what difference a few more ticks would make. Coran had said Keith was ready to come out, so why wasn’t he _out?_

Shiro put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Lance, Coran said Keith will be fine.”

Lance nodded but couldn’t help the unsure expression on his face. It wasn’t that he doubted Coran – the man was usually right about everything – but Lance _might_ have been nursing a _tiny_ fear that Keith wouldn’t be the same after having his lifeforce sucked out of him. After all, wasn’t it kind of like having your soul sucked out? And souls were supposed to be your personality or something, right?

Or at least, that was Lance’s vague understanding of souls. He’d never really thought too much about them, but he’d been raised to believe they were a thing, so he was trying to fit it in with what he’d been told about quintessence. Coran and Allura hadn’t been much help when Lance had asked them. They’d never heard of souls and were fascinated by the concept, asking more questions than they’d answered. 

Lance really hoped Keith was the same.

It was a weird thing to discover that their rivalry – and Lance was a big enough person to admit, at least to himself, that the rivalry had been mostly on his side – had grown into a friendship. One that was more about banter and snark than the camaraderie he shared with Hunk, but an important friendship nonetheless.

The pod announced the end of the healing cycle by hissing open and Keith slumped forward, eyes still closed.

Both Shiro and Lance grabbed him before he could faceplant onto the floor and that was enough for Keith’s eyes to snap open.

“Wha…” he mumbled, voice hoarse. “Shiro?”

Lance felt a surge of hope. Okay, recognizing people, that was good.

Shiro patted Keith’s shoulder. “It sure is. How are you feeling, buddy?”

“Uhh…” Keith blinked and looked around. “I…what?”

Lance chewed on his lip. Monosyllables, that was Keith, but they were usually a lot less dazed. And he was still pretty pale.

“You and Lance were attacked on an abandoned ship by some nasty creatures,” said Shiro. “Do you remember that?”

Keith blinked, then frowned – and whoa, if that didn’t make him look like himself! – before nodding. “How did we get out?”

“We’ll tell you all about it while you have something to eat,” replied Shiro, letting go once it looked like Keith would remain upright. “How do you feel?”

Keith rubbed at his chest, as if testing it. “Fine.”

Shiro eyed him sceptically. “You’re not tired?”

Keith shrugged. “Nothing major.”

Nothing major…yeah, right! Lance had a sneaking suspicion that Keith would have to be bleeding out before he admitted weakness.

Shiro sighed and Lance suspected he was thinking something similar. “Okay. But you’re barred from the training deck or physical activity for the next few days. Coran said you’re going to need time to recover your strength. Am I understood?” Shiro fixed Keith with a stern look.

Despite looking less than impressed, Keith nodded.

Shiro smiled. “Good. Now, let’s get you some food. Do you want to change first?”

Keith glanced down at himself, then shrugged again. “No, it’s fine.”

And there was the proof Lance needed – of course Keith wouldn’t care what the suit looked like. This was definitely their Keith! “The mullet is back!” he cheered, throwing an arm around Keith’s shoulder. 

Keith gave him a bewildered look. “I was never gone?”

“No, but your soul might have been sucked out.” Lance grinned at him. “That could definitely have been a thing.”

Keith looked even more confused. “Lance, what are you talking about?”

“Nope!” Shiro interrupted, as Lance opened his mouth to explain. “Food first, then we can fill Keith in.”

Less than twenty minutes later, they were all seated around the table while Lance and Shiro, sitting on either side of Keith, filled him in on what happened. Keith didn’t ask any questions while they talked, instead listening with that intense focus of his as he practically inhaled a bowl of green goo. He didn’t even seem to notice when Coran dropped a blanket over his shoulders.

At one point, Allura interjected with a little history about the Moevaydon, and Lance discovered that they travelled in packs of two to four, explaining why Allura hadn’t insisted on searching the ship for more of them.

When they were finished, there was a moment of silence while Keith did that frown-y thing that meant he was processing what they’d told him.

Finally, he asked, “How did those things get onto the ship?”

“We are not sure,” Allura answered. “They were probably brought aboard in those crates that you saw, but Moevaydon are creatures of instinct. They lack the awareness to stow themselves aboard a ship in that manner.” 

“Meaning someone put them there,” Keith concluded, eyes narrowing.

“Yes,” said Allura.

Lance sat up. This was news to him. He’d been so concerned about Keith over the last two days that he’d never even thought about how those creatures got on board that ship. “But who would do something like that? _Why_ would they do it?”

“We don’t know,” answered Allura, her face grim. “But Pidge downloaded the Captain’s logs. We are trying to track whoever did it through the shipping manifesto.”

“No luck yet though,” Pidge added.

Lance stared. This was horrible. Someone had put those things on a ship full of innocent people.

“We can’t do anything about it until we have more information,” Shiro spoke up. “So, Voltron is going to continue as usual while Pidge dissects the information from that ship. And, Keith, you need to get some sleep. Coran said you need lots of rest to help replenish the quintessence the Moevaydon drained out of you.”

Keith opened his mouth to argue but was silenced by a _look_ from Shiro. “Not up for debate, Keith.”

He sighed. “Fine.”

“You need help getting to your room?” Shiro asked.

Keith responded by giving him a dirty look Lance hadn’t thought him capable of giving Shiro.

Shiro merely chuckled. “Just checking.”

Relaxing a little, Keith got to his feet. Then he paused for a moment behind Lance’s chair. “Uh, Lance?”

“Yeah?”

Keith looked a little awkward. “Thanks. For what you did…on the ship.” 

Lance beamed up at him. “Anytime, buddy. I’ve got your back.”

And Keith gave him one of his small, rare smiles, before shuffling out of the room.

Lance sat back in his chair, feeling the tension of the last few days drain away. Sure, somebody was evil enough to set a group of Moevaydon on a bunch of innocent people, but if anyone in the universe could find them, it was Pidge. And then Voltron would kick their asses. 

More importantly, Lance now knew that no matter what uncertainty or changes his team were going through, they still had each other’s backs.

And that was all he needed to face whatever the universe threw at them.


End file.
